You Can Dress It Up, But Economic Picture Is Still Ugly

July 16, 2008

First, former Sen. Phil Gramm told me that I'm a "whiner" and that the economy isn't really bad; I'm just suffering from a "mental recession." Then I'm told by James Sherk of the Heritage Foundation [Op-Ed, July 11, "Who Says Workers Are Falling Behind?"] that I haven't really fallen behind economically.

As a teacher of mathematics, I often tell my students to beware of statistics, because you can "prove" almost anything you want with them.

Apparently Mr. Sherk never heard that lecture from his math teacher, or he is just intent on telling us how wonderful everything has been during the past eight years. But in either case, his article is nothing more than an amalgamation of disjointed statistics in search of a point.

Perhaps if I, like Gramm, were safely tucked away in my office at the World Bank or earning big bucks putting out propaganda for the Heritage Foundation, I wouldn't feel the sting of exorbitant fuel and food prices. From 2001 to 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, median pretax household income has decreased nearly $1,000. To talk of "total hourly earnings" and include health insurance and retirement benefits in those earnings is misleading at best. Try paying for your heating oil bill next winter with your increase in health insurance.

Many workers have had their hours cut; hence the increase in "benefits per hour worked."

Please, don't publish any more Op-Ed pieces telling me how wonderful everything is. Even when you put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig!